New Orleans firefighters pulled several people out of a St. Claude property that caught fire Tuesday morning. But NOFD officials said no one should have been living in the building in the first place because the property was deemed "unsafe" less than a week ago.

The city of New Orleans deemed the property unsafe on July 31, according to signs posted on the front of the building.

On Tuesday morning, the building caught fire. Firefighters arrived to find the front of the building fully involved and several people inside. An older man who was rescued from the building was taken to a hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Firefighters say the fire remained at one alarm. It took approximately 10 minutes for crews to get it under control.

NOFD said electricity should have been turned off at the property, but found an extension cord running from an adjacent property to power appliances inside of the property. Fire investigators worked Tuesday morning to determine whether or not the extension cord sparked the fire.

The Rev. Fred Morgan owns the apartment building that caught fire. He said he allowed six people to live in the building. The other four people weren’t supposed to be there, Morgan said, but he did identify with them.

"I been dealing with poor folks all my life because I'm a poor boy,” he said. “I use to work for 45 cents a day from sun to sun."

"If 10 people were there, I didn't know nothing about it,” Morgan said.

Morgan said two people worked in exchange for a room and the others paid $200 - $300 in rent while waiting for placement at a local shelter.

"I'm laughing but it don't look too good,” said apartment resident Jimmy Wordsworth. “ I don't really want to sleep on the streets you know, but I might have too."